


homecoming

by everlarklane



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Awkward, Coffee Shop, College, Dorks in Love, F/F, Falling In Love, Fluff, Happy Ending, Just kiss her already jfc, Meet-Awkward, Meet-Cute, Multi, Romance, Sapphic, dorks drag it out so long just KISS, pjosapphicweek, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-20 20:13:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9511418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everlarklane/pseuds/everlarklane
Summary: They meet like a stray wave striking a rock.





	

They meet like a stray wave striking a rock- unexpected and bold.

It’s every meet awkward au Lou Ellen has ever read, except it’s the tall girl covered in Lou Ellen’s coffee while her girlfriend mops up the mess. It’s Lou Ellen stuttering apologies with hot cheeks.

The salty air matches the water bubbling in her eyes and Lou Ellen becomes more mortified then before when she bursts into tears.

“Hey- hey,” the shorter girl says as the taller girl’s eyes widen. “It’s okay.”

“I know!” Lou Ellen wails, trying to calm herself. She’d always been a painfully easy crier.

But the taller girl seems to understand and she holds out one dark brown hand. 

“My sister is the same way,” she says. “I’m Kristina.”

Lou Ellen stares at the hand for a moment and takes it, a watery smile on her lips. “Lou Ellen Bautista,” she hiccups, wiping her cheeks.

“Ellie,” says the shorter girl with an easy smile. “Sorry about your coffee. Can we buy you another one?”

“Sorry for spilling it on you,” Lou Ellen says, glancing at Kristina. “And…sure.”

They buy her coffee and sit together in a booth. They talk and Lou Ellen learns that they are starting at the same college as Lou Ellen. They compare classes and exchange phone numbers and even as they stand to leave, Lou Ellen doesn’t want to go.

* * *

They grow closer and somehow, so softly none of them noticed it, Lou Ellen slipped into their dynamic. She began spending more nights on the sofa of their apartment, more nights cuddled up with them while they watch bad infomercials, more time with them then without them. She doesn’t notice at first how her heart flutters when they are around, how happy she is when one of them smiles at her, but she does notice the crinkles at the edges of Kristina’s eyes when she laughs, the elegance of Ellie’s eyebrows that are so, so expressive and it isn’t until Lou Ellen is tangled in a pile of limbs with Kristina laughing above her and Ellie’s squealing underneath them that she realizes that she is head over heels. 

But they are Ellie and Kristina, Kristina and Ellie and Lou Ellen doesn’t know how to become Lou Ellen and Kristina and Ellie without breaking it all apart. 

What she doesn’t realize is that they already are.

* * *

Lou Ellen wants to kiss them.

She knows she staring but Kristina and Ellie are pressed closer together than normal, hands entwined and she feels cold and lonely and yet so full of love.

They are _right there_ but Lou Ellen can’t have them.

* * *

Lou Ellen’s heart plummets one night when Kristina and Ellie ask her to go home. 

The problem is that she’s already there.

She still gets up, zips up her jacket and heads back to her apartment. She trudges through the light layer of early snow and breathes the salty air, undefeated by the cold, and feels smaller somehow.

She walks into an empty room and disturbs the dust gathered on every surface. She hasn’t been back in a week.

She stares at the ceiling that night and tries to feel something other than emptiness.

* * *

The next day, Lou Ellen feels pathetic as she waits for the phone to ring. She has no classes and so she begins to clean her apartment, eyes drawn to her pink cellphone lying innocuously on the couch. 

She eats breakfast and mindlessly watches stupid videos on her phone all the while waiting.

Waiting.

The phone rings.

* * *

Lou Ellen is waiting on a cold metal bench out in Central Park. Her fingers are cold and shaking and she isn’t sure if it is the cold or the nerves. 

Then she sees them- gloved hands swinging, puffy jackets Lou Ellen insisted they buy, scarves, matching, like the one Lou Ellen is wearing now that Ellie knitted- and to her horror she almost starts crying because _god, she missed them and she’s so relieved and scared-_

“Lou!” Ellie says, running up to her and Lou Ellen smiles, sniffles.

“Hi,” she says softly.

“Are you okay?” Kristina asks. Lou Ellen nods.

“So we talked last night,” Ellie says and ice begins to take over Lou Ellen’s blood. “And came to a decision.”

“If you’re willing,” Kristina started. 

“We’d like you to become our girlfriend,” Ellie finishes.

_Beat._

“What?” Lou Ellen says. She isn’t sure what she was expecting, exactly, but it wasn’t this.

“If you don’t want-” Ellie starts but Lou Ellen shakes her head.

“N-no!” she says. “I want this, I- I really really want this, I just can’t believe-” And she’s crying again and they are hugging.

“Can I kiss you?” Kristina asks and Ellie whines,

“I wanted to kiss her first!”

Lou Ellen giggles wetly and pushes them back a little. “Guys, I’m all gross and wet,” she says and her cheeks start to burn from smiling.

“Eh, that just makes you cuter,” Kristina says and Lou Ellen laughs. They kiss her on both cheeks and pull her to her feet. 

“Let’s go to that coffee shop we met at,” says Ellie, grabbing Lou Ellen’s hand. Kristina grabs her other. 

Lou Ellen’s cheeks feel hot when she remembers how they met and Ellie squeezes her hand, winking. Kristina laughs and Lou Ellen’s _home_ again.

* * *

Her fingers aren’t so cold anymore.


End file.
